


Novocaine Daydreams

by LocalVodkaAunt



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Sabo is high on painkillers, UST, Unrequited Love, mentions of medical procedures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 14:49:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15997469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LocalVodkaAunt/pseuds/LocalVodkaAunt
Summary: When he agreed to pick up Sabo from the dentist, Ace didn't know what he was in for.





	Novocaine Daydreams

**Author's Note:**

> So, I wanted to write this for a time now and I had to rewrite it twice. Now it's finally done! Thank you condemnedflame for the beta and putting up with my stupid mistakes! 
> 
> If you like it, please leave me a line or an emoji in the comments :)

Ace wouldn’t have thought it would be this bad.

 

When Sabo announced he needed his wisdom teeth removed weeks ago, he had been mildly sympathetic, remembering how it sucked to have his cheeks swollen and eat nothing but soup for three days—not to mention how ridiculous he looked. He had forgotten most of the pain, and the whole ordeal lasted only a few days. Besides, he had worse.

 

Anyway, it had been seven years since he had the surgery, so he pat Sabo on the back, told him he’d get some chicken broth from Luffy’s friend Sanji, and that he’d get through it just fine… unlike the time he needed to get stitches and the anesthetics didn’t work.

 

Then he laughed at his own joke and Sabo’s pained grin and left, not thinking about it until his brother asked him to pick him up at the clinic after the procedure a few days ago.

 

“I’ll be on some pretty heavy pain meds”, Sabo explained, “I don’t think anything will happen, but I’m kind of worried I’ll just fall asleep on the subway or something.”

 

Ace didn’t respond that he wasn’t exactly the best person to bring along if a nap was out of the question, but since he wanted to be supportive, he held his tongue and nodded in agreement. Also, he reasoned, it would be pretty fun to see Sabo high on legal drugs. Besides, who didn’t hate dentist appointments?

 

He was still young and naïve then. He knew nothing of what was yet to come.

 

Now he is walking Sabo from the doctor’s office to the subway. His brother grins gleefully, his right arm companionably linked with Ace’s. The spring he usually has in his steps is greatly exaggerated, pulling Ace forward almost forcefully. His eyes flutter around, pointing out different things that meet their gaze, and when they do he halts and points excitedly at whatever holds his interest.

 

“Ace, look!” He yells now. “That guy’s jacket looks totally stupid!” His voice rings out so shrill that the man in question turns around and looks at them angrily. Ace mouths a ‘sorry’ in his direction, indicating with his hands that Sabo might be crazy. Which is more than true, especially today.

 

Sabo is right, though. The purple jacket the guy wears makes him want to be color blind.

 

The man passes, and when Ace looks at his brother again, he can’t hold back a grin.

 

“Ha, I knew you’d think so, too!” Sabo calls and Ace pulls him along quickly, just in case jacket guy will come back. But Sabo has moved on already. “They’re selling cotton candy! I want cotton candy! Let me buy some!” He makes a move to break away from his brother, but is held off at the last moment by a hand on his elbow.

 

“You just had dental surgery,” Ace reminds him and ignores Sabo’s childish whimper. It makes him think of Luffy somehow.

 

“But I want to eat it,” Sabo pouts.

 

Ace lets out a frustrated sigh. “I’ll personally buy you some once your teeth have healed. If I’d known you’d be like this, I’d have just left you at the clinic!”

 

“Awww, shuddup, you love me!” His brother preens and pulls him forwards, cotton candy completely gone from his mind.

 

Ace growls. He hates to admit it, but Sabo’s got a point there.

 

He doesn’t know how they made it home in one piece. But it certainly involves Sabo trying to chat up a girl in the subway. He wanted to impress her by leaning in conspiringly and whispering communist slogans, so Ace would say he completely deserved the slap to his swollen cheeks. He is still embarrassed when they get home. Growing up with Luffy, Ace is resistant to most situations that would send others into a spiral of shame, but something about seeing Sabo like this freaks him out. Maybe it’s the change in his usual laid back and amused demeanor, or the contrast with the long blue coat and top hat he wears.

 

When they finally make it through the door of their apartment building, Ace feels like he has aged ten years. His heart beats fast and he feels a drop of sweat run down his spine. When the elevator closes behind them, he leans against the cool glass of the mirror and watches Sabo, who grimasses at his reflection and then sticks his tongue out to Ace.

 

“Why, Sabo?”

 

He hears how exhausted he sounds and hope the drugs will soon wear off because he can’t stand a whole afternoon of this.

 

“Because you look mad and you’re no fun when you are!”

 

Again, Sabo sounds so much like Luffy it’s almost scary to Ace. He half expects his brother to sit down on the floor demanding a steak. For a second he feels dread rise up in his stomach when he thinks about Luffy maybe being home and him having to watch over not one, but two adults who are behaving exactly like five-year-olds.

 

“I’m plenty fun”, he responds eventually. “You’re just high on painkillers.”

 

“Am not!”

 

Thank god the elevator stops right that second. “…If you say so.” He makes his way out to the hallway, counting on Sabo to follow him.

 

They stay silent for the rest of the way, Ace watching as Sabo mimics using a walking cane like he some kind of victorian gentleman. With his steampunk outfit, he kind of looks the part.

As soon as the apartment door closes behind them, Ace feels relief settle on his shoulders, releasing a tension he didn’t know he held.

 

Sabo unbuckles his boots and turns around with a mischievous expression. “You know what we haven’t done in forever?” He asks, then turns around and runs into the living room. Nothing good can come out of this, Ace knows, but he follows him nonetheless in the hope to prevent the worst. As soon as he steps over the threshold, though, something big and soft hits him in the face. “Pillow fight!” Sabo hasn’t even taken off his hat. Still fully clothed he sits on the couch, second big pillow in hand and ready to throw. Only his martial arts training prevents Ace from taking another hit and he ducks, simultaneously fishing for the pillow that just hit him.

 

Between taking cover behind the shelf and getting his missile in the general direction of Sabo, only one thought crosses his head.

 

_Why me?_

 

He knows though, and he doesn’t want to imagine what would have happened if Luffy had picked Sabo up. They probably would have wound up in the ER after getting beaten up by jacket guy. Or ended up vomiting cotton candy all over the subway station.

 

“You cannot escaaaape!”

 

The tone of his brother’s voice sends him back to when they were children and playing in the woods at the edge of town, pretending to be pirates in a ferocious sea battle. Now, fifteen years later, instead of using sticks as swords they use their living room furniture, but the feeling is still the same and Ace can barely hold back a laugh as a duvet lands on his head and he dives from behind the shelf to get closer to his brother. He will get his revenge. Picking up the next best throwable thing, he lurches forwards, hitting Sabo square in the chest.

 

Sabo lets out a laugh, then a groan. “Fuck, that feels weird”, he states and rubs his cheek, indicating that the anesthetic is beginning to wear off. But obviously it’s still not gone completely as he finds his composure again quickly.

 

“No mercy,” Ace screams as he pulls the pillow back to him and knocks Sabo’s hat off with the next hit. “I got you!”

 

Sabo acts as if he has been fatally wounded. “Please, let me live.” He has his hands up in the air, his swollen face in combination with his long coat and his position on the couch are comical to watch and Ace feels a grin on his face.

 

“Then beg!” He demands.

 

“Oh please, mighty Ace, King of the pirates…” The familiar dialogue conjures up memories of the seven-year-old boy with the bold tooth gap and big head, back before Sabo had a scar over his eye to prove how fucked up life can be, back when they didn’t know about fire or politics or what people could do to one another.

 

Sabo uses Aces momentarily distraction to his advantage and grasps for the pillow in Ace’s hand faster than he should be able to in his drugged state. “I will never surrender!” Reflexively, Ace holds on tight and the power behind Sabo’s movements pull him down to the couch where he loses his balance and lands on top of the pillow and, subsequently, his brother.

 

For a moment, nothing happens except them both catching their breaths, panting after the surprise of the fall. But then, as if on cue, both try to get the pillow out between their bodies, resulting in a mess of grabbing hands and kicking legs.

 

Neither of them manages to grab it and it sails to the floor, leaving Ace lying awkwardly on top of his brother, who makes a pained sound at the elbow in his side. He pushes Ace to the side and rolls around. Still pressed close to him, Ace can see his flushed face and his chest heaving as he takes deep breaths.

 

It’s a weird feeling to be so close to Sabo. He knows his brother’s body from the way he fights, knows how it feels to lift his weight off him, how his punches feel in his face or his guts. But lying there, bodies touching, is completely different. Almost like they are really children again, two kids lying under the trees, hungry and too tired to let go of one another.

 

He meets Sabo’s gaze as he looks up, and his brother grins. “We used to do this all the time.”

 

“Yeah, I remember,”Ace answers.

 

They lie there in silence for a while, not moving, their agreement to not break the fragile understanding hanging unspoken between them.

 

“I miss it sometimes.”

 

The statement catches Ace off guard. He thought he was the only one who sometimes asked himself how everything would have been if they hadn’t met Luffy. It would have just been the two of them forever—against the town, the greys and the rest of the world. He loves his brother, but before they were a family, they were two friends. And if anybody had asked Ace, he would have answered that it was perfect just the way it was.

 

Sometimes, in the darkest, most quiet hours of the night when he can’t sleep, he thinks Sabo almost had been his first crush.

 

He wouldn’t change anything, not a single second of their life together, but these are the nights he wonders. The only times he allows himself to think about the could-have-beens and how he would have been happy with them, too.

 

“We were a good team”, he responds eventually.

 

“We still are.” Sabo still smiles, and despite looking more like a grimace, it brightens his face.

 

Due to the pain in his cheeks it doesn’t last. “Don’t you sometimes feel more like a dad than an older brother?”

 

Ace laughs at that. “I certainly do right now.”

 

“Hey!” Playfully, Sabo’s fist hits his shoulder. “I don’t need to get picked up from school in regular intervals because I got into a fight with the older kids.”

 

“You know you would have beaten them up, too.”

 

They are so close that Sabo’s chuckle vibrates in Ace’s chest. “You’re right. I just wonder…” he trails off.

 

“Yeah, me too.”

 

Their eyes are still locked. The closeness is almost overwhelming, like only Sabo exists right now. A bomb could go off next to him, but Ace wouldn’t notice. There is so much between them they never talked about, never even thought about. He swallows thickly, almost tasting the possibilities on his tongue.

 

“You know, when I was a kid-“ Ace doesn’t want to hear the end of the sentence. At the same time he has never wanted to hear something so bad in his life. He is painfully aware that their faces are only inches apart.

 

He takes a deep breath. “What?”

 

Sabo looks at him. Still looks at him. His eyes haven’t left his face for one second since Ace landed on the couch a few minutes ago.

 

Something passes over his face, but it’s gone before Ace can make out what it was.

 

“When I was a kid,” he continues, “I always wanted to do this.”

 

And then he reaches for Ace, hands tangling in his hair, and brushes his lips over his.

 

It’s fleeting, but it shakes his world and even if it’s over in a second, Ace feels the pressure on his lips, the warmth of Sabo against him, is aware that Sabo’s hands are still in his hair, even if the other has averted his gaze now.

 

The desire that wells up in him is so strong it takes his breath away. Without thinking about it, he leans over and presses their lips together once more. At first, Sabo doesn’t move, but then a surprised gasp slips from his mouth and he moves against Ace. His swollen lips feel funny against Ace’s own, but it’s so right at the same time, as if he waited for this all his life. He just didn’t know it yet.

 

And maybe he has.

 

It’s a sloppy kiss. It’s uncoordinated and there’s no skill. Their position is too uncomfortable and Sabo’s wound too inconveniently placed, but Ace wants it to never end. When he feels Sabo’s tongue lick against his lower lip leisurely, he immediately opens up, pressing himself tighter against the other, wanting to get even closer, like he’s making up for all the times they didn’t.

 

Too soon he has to break away for air. Taking a deep breath he looks down on the other man. Sabo meets his gaze with heavy lidded eyes. His lips seem almost unnaturally red and his hair is sticking up around his head where Ace gripped it.

 

He looks dazed.

 

And then it hits him. Sabo’s anesthetics are only now wearing off. He came out of surgery. He has been acting weird all afternoon. He is not himself today and probably still high on whatever runs through his system.

 

He doesn’t want this. Ace does. He can’t even decide if he wants it as he is now, who knows what goes on in his head? Not even two hours ago he wanted to further class warfare with the help of a stranger on the subway, whom he also told they should be ‘more than comrades.’

 

The realization chokes him.

 

Sabo reaches up to him and touches his cheek oh so lightly.

 

“Ace?” He asks and his voice is heavy. The effect of the drugs is wearing of. He must be tired.

 

“It’s nothing” Ace hears how stifled his voice sounds. He doesn’t know what happened. A few minutes ago, everything was the same as it had always been, but whatever crazy impulse led Sabo to do this to him has set something free in Ace he didn’t know existed. But even if he did, he wouldn’t have paid it any attention.

 

As it is now, though, it hurts.

 

“I should get you some water or something,” he murmurs, longing to get out of the situation as quickly as possible. But before he can move off the couch, Sabo catches his hand.

 

“Can you stay just a bit longer?”

 

He wants to say no. He wants to go to the kitchen, close the door and let out the sob that clenches in his chest. And then he’ll go and bury this feeling where it came from, somewhere deep down inside of him. But he can’t. So he forces himself to relax, and he notices Sabo’s head sink against his chest.

 

He wishes this was more than just a drug induced experiment for the other man, that he could fall asleep right next to him and when they woke up they’d still be tangled up, exchanging a conspiratorial glance. That this wouldn’t be the last kiss they ever shared but the first of many.  But it isn’t, so he just lays there, listening to Sabo’s breath getting deeper, letting go again with every exhale.

 

And as soon as he is sure Sabo’s drifted into sleep he begins to commit every line and edge of his body to memory, for all the future nights he will lie awake.

 

He’s sure there will be many.

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me on my tumblr, zorotrash :D


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